Today we meet Gabriella Sayers, director of list management at Stanford Direct, Ramsey, NJ.
Prior to joining Stanford three years ago, she briefly worked at data processing firm Apollo Direct. For the 10 years prior to that, she worked in direct and credit marketing roles at Equifax.
At Stanford, she specializes in brokering and managing compiled business-to-business, Canadian and new-mover files. Like most in the industry, she's feeling the effects of current slow business conditions.
"I do see a decrease in the quantity of names and the number of mailings being done per year and I think that's basically due to the recession and possibly the Internet coming into play," she says, noting the boom days of traditional direct marketing may be in the past. "But hopefully people are still traditional and like to receive mail and see an actual piece of paper in their hands—we're hoping it will stay consistent to some degree."
Cooperative databases are one bright spot, she notes.
"I think that's because the compiled files are less expensive and you have a tremendous amount of demographics information on a compiled file without spending the exorbitant amount of money a response file would incur," she says.
During her time in the industry, Sayers also says she's noticed an increase in the number of companies using enhancements.
"I think you see a lot of customers overlaying information and doing a lot of modeling and enhancing to find mirrored prospects," she says. "More educated brokers and end users are finding smarter ways of doing their direct mail or telemarketing campaigns," she says.
However, she's not necessarily gung-ho about e-mail marketing.
"E-mail marketing is such a difficult channel [through which] to receive an actual response or an actual sale" in both B-to-B and consumer marketing, she says. "I still feel the market has to be a little more educated and informed about what are realistic expectations of e-mail marketing and a successful campaign."
As far as when the economic slump will lift, that depends on individual vertical market, she notes. "Certain industries will take a little longer to come out of the recession."
For example, she says, some credit card companies seem to be doing better and have upped their mailings of late. "But then you have retailers whose sales are still falling."
Off the job, Sayers lives in Ramsey, NJ and cares for her twin daughters, who just celebrated their second birthday.
